Place your highest premium on power, strength, endurance, stamina or physique. But ultimately, these are merely means to an end; an end which, if they fail to fulfill that end, categorically define you as “unfit.” Sorry, but it’s my job as a coach, to not try and seduce you into reading, but to give you an opportunity to shake yourself from the slumber into which the media and marketeers compel us to fall comatose. We need to keep each other awake. We need to ask: for what are we becoming fit?
For many decades of focus, our society has emphasized physical fitness, we have become distracted by both the outward appearance of fitness, and by the quantifiable output of “objective” metrics. Neither of these matter at all, if our exercise decreases our quality of life. In fact, they’re quite arbitrary. No one wants to be the most attractive cadaver in the cemetery, nor have the tombstone epitaph of “heaviest lifts – shortest life.”
Many experts have taken to explaining that exercise is like a sport (if not actually, a sport). Therefore, you should anticipate injuries and expect to eventually no longer be able to perform without agony and decrepitude. These excuses rationalize the belief system which has made means into ends in themselves; they’ve mistaken the process for the product.
One virtue defines the ultimate goal of all physical exercise. We use common descriptions for it, because it answers the question “fit for what?” What are you becoming fit FOR? We want to be pain free. We want to be able to do the physical tasks and activities which we encounter without fear. We want all of our range of motion. We want to feel that we can perform with poise and grace.
We want flow.
Flow once was an elusive virtue. It once bordered on the pseudoscientific. When I first began researching it in the late 80s, it was nothing but an unidentifiable bucket term. But as stress physiology and exercise science coalesced with the now concrete field of “flow psychology” (itself a combination of biochemistry, neurophysiology, positive psychology and coaching psychology), flow fitness became a legitimate field of study. The term now even appeares in university courses.
I’ve written many books on the subject since those early years of my study including Free to Move and Prasara Yoga: Flow without Thought. Each time, I have tried to offer a clear and concise understanding of the end goal that all fitness holds in common. At first they were dismissed. Now some are being used as university texts and referenced in research studies. The industry is evolving.
When I began, I was a lone point of contention. Where many of the professionals had allied themselves of each other in group seminars, products and network affiliate “brotherhoods.” I didn’t quite “fit in” with my focus on such a “soft” topic as flow. They were hardcore extreme. My “circular” material was too feminine for their tastes. I even managed to sneak under their radar by creating a “tactical” fitness system for special operations and federal agencies… which focused on recovery: one of my sneakiest moves to covertly smuggle health-first fitness into the corral of the hardcore extreme attitudes.
However, look around and take notice today. Those meathead attitudes have all since evaporated except for the parodies displayed in reality television (another reason to avoid the TV). Now, we hear only topics regarding mobility, recovery, restoration, movement, freedom and flow. We are no longer alone. There are many, many new professionals appearing who have shifted the entire industry into a singular focus on what truly matters, the ultimate intended end of physical exercise: Does your fitness increase your flow in life?
Is your exercise increasing your ability to experience a robust physical life, devoid of pain? Or are you on the death-row of fitness, anticipating the inevitable decline or catastrophic injury which will end your physical vitality, albeit with one last competitive hurrah? I hope it’s the former, and if not, that you have a chance to bring a little more flow into your life, before that finality compels you to. (And if you’re still competitive in a sport, let me tell you, that flow is the singular most defining characteristic of all of the highest level of athletic performance AND the most gratifying experience in every level of competition. If you want to extend your competitive career, refocus on flow!)
Regardless of what you’ve been taught before, or what has been beaten into you, the ultimate physical experience is one of flow-state. It’s not just for athletic competition, and can be as elegantly simple as increasing a range of lost motion, relishing a 2nd (or 3rd) wind, or spending an entire day playing soccer with your kids with no limitations and dread of tomorrow’s pain. You deserve it. You have earned it. Allow it back into your life.
Very Respectfully,
Scott B. Sonnon
TACFIT Founder